Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and eventually even the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. In most people with Alzheimer's, symptoms first appear after age 60. Estimates vary, but experts suggest that as many as 5.1 million Americans may have Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia among older people. Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning—thinking, remembering, and reasoning—and behavioral abilities, to such an extent that it interferes with a person's daily life and activities. Dementia ranges in severity from the mildest stage, when it is just beginning to affect a person's functioning, to the most severe stage, when the person must depend completely on others for basic activities of daily living.
Alzheimer's disease is named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer. In 1906, Dr. Alzheimer noticed changes in the brain tissue of a woman who had died of an unusual mental illness. Her symptoms included memory loss, language problems, and unpredictable behavior. After she died, he examined her brain and found many abnormal clumps (now called amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (now called neurofibrillary tangles). Plaques and tangles in the brain are two of the main features of Alzheimer's disease. The third is the loss of nerve cells (neurons) and the loss of connections between neurons in the brain.
Although we still don't know how the Alzheimer's disease process begins, it seems likely that damage to the brain starts a decade or more before clinically measurable problems become evident. During the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease, people are free of overt symptoms while toxic changes are taking place in the brain. Abnormal deposits of proteins form amyloid plaques and tau tangles throughout the brain, and once-healthy neurons begin to work less efficiently. Over time, neurons lose their ability to function and communicate with each other, and eventually they die.
Before long, the damage spreads to a nearby structure in the brain called the hippocampus, which is essential in forming memories. As more neurons die, affected brain regions begin to shrink. By the final stage of Alzheimer's, damage is widespread, and brain tissue has shrunk significantly.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,273,888 discloses the use of difluoromethlyornithine (DFMO) for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and mentions that polyamine dysregulation may be the cause of many neurodegenerative conditions with Alzheimer's Disease being mentioned among them.
US Patent Application Publication US 2006/0281817 published Dec. 14, 2006 discloses methods for treating a neurodegenerative disease comprising the administration of an ornithine decarboxylase inhibitor.